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- High-quality Bundt pans are easy to maneuver, bake evenly, produce attractive cakes, release your baked goods effortlessly, and are a snap to clean up.
- The Wilton Perfect Results Non-Stick Fluted Tube Pan is our top pick because it’s inexpensive, lightweight, and has easy-to-grip handles.
There is no single recipe used to make a Bundt cake. Rather, the term refers to the shape of the cake, which generally has ridges or grooves and a cylindrical hole in the middle. Though the cake has been around for centuries, it didn’t get its “Bundt” moniker until Nordic Ware trademarked it in 1950 to describe its new line of pans.
Today, there are dozens of companies selling their own Bundt pans, only you will often see these pans referred to as “fluted tube pans” to avoid potentially infringing on the trademark. Nordic Ware continues to be the most popular brand thanks to its selection of countless designs.
Bundt pans are used for a variety of purposes, including molding frozen desserts and gelatins and baking festive breads. For this guide, though, we are going to focus on which pans are best for crafting cakes.
Using a Bundt pan to bake cakes is quite simple. First, you use a baking spray or shortening to grease the pan — use pastry a brush to get into all of the crevices. Slowly add the batter — any cake batter will do — to the pan. Once it’s all in, tap the pan a few times to get the air bubbles out. For even baking, spread the batter so it’s higher on the sides than the center.
Once the cake is ready, remove it from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Tap the pan a few times and invert it over a cooling rack to let the cake slide out and cool completely.
A good Bundt pan must produce cakes that are attractive to look at. There are two factors that play into this. First, the shape of the actual pan will give you a good idea of what your baked goods will look like. The designs range from your classic symmetrical round pan with ridges to incredibly intricate grooves for catching glazes. The other factor to consider is the product’s tint. Typically, the darker the pan, the darker your cake will be. So, you will likely want a pan that is lighter in color.
Several different materials are used to make Bundt pans: silicone, ceramic, glass, and an array of metals. We only included aluminum and steel pans in our guide because silicone is floppy and fails to brown correctly and glass and ceramic do not conduct heat well. A heavy-duty aluminum or steel pan with a nonstick surface will cook your cake evenly and give it a nice even browning.
While researching the best Bundt pans, we read through hundreds of expert and buyer reviews and ratings of dozens of models. Our guide features pans that have a track record of ease of use, performance, and durability.
Here are the best Bundt pans you can buy:
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.
The best Bundt pan overall
Why you’ll love it: Thanks to its nonstick surface and easy-grip handles, the Wilton Perfect Results Non-Stick Fluted Tube Pan makes baking Bundt cakes a pleasant experience.
The Wilton Perfect Results Non-Stick Fluted Tube Panfeatures a nonstick surface and is made of steel so it bakes evenly, releases your food effortlessly, and is easy to clean. This container is dishwasher safe, though Wilton recommends washing by hand.
It produces cakes that are approximately 9.25 inches in diameter and 3.37 inches high so they are slightly smaller than your usually Bundt cake. Wilton backs the quality of this pan with a 10-year limited warranty.
Cook’s Illustrated gave the Wilton Perfect Results Fluted Tube Pan high marks because the handles are easy to grab thanks to built-in ridges. The reviewer also gave this pan the highest rating for ease of use and release. However, the writer did note that the shallowness of the cake fluting led to a less impressive-looking finished product.
Kitchen Byte recommends this Wilton pan because of its low price and 10-year guarantee, but the reviewer found the metal to be somewhat thin and didn’t trust it in the dishwasher.
About 89% of the people who reviewed the Wilton Perfect Results Non-Stick Fluted Tube Pan on Amazon gave it five stars. Buyers had an easy time maneuvering this lightweight pan, and since there are no deep grooves, it’s easy to clean. There are also several comments about how easily the pan releases cake after baking.
One buyer tested out the pan and found it held 10 cups of water. She didn’t recommend putting that much batter in, though, because it would overflow as it expanded during cooking. She suggests putting a catch pan underneath if you’re concerned about overflow.
Pros: Lightweight, easy to maneuver, excellent nonstick surface for quick release and effortless cleanup
Cons: Small, concerns about durability
The best affordable Bundt pan
Why you’ll love it: If you are interested in trying to make Bundt cakes, the Cuisinart Chef's Classic Nonstick Bakeware Fluted Cake Pan is a durable and affordable option that is ideal for beginners.
The Cuisinart Chef's Classic Nonstick Bakeware Fluted Cake Pan is made of a heavy-gauge aluminized steel that is designed to bake evenly. Food releases easily thanks to the nonstick Whitford Xylan coating. To prevent warping, the edges are extra-thick rolled.
You can even pop this pan into the dishwasher for easy cleaning. Cuisinart offers a quality promise of great performance for a lifetime.
Food & Wine recommends the Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Nonstick Bakeware Fluted Cake Pan because the cake it produced was browned uniformly, cooked all the way through, and there was no crumbling or cracking as the reviewer slid the cake neatly from the pan. However, she was not impressed with the appearance of the cake’s “under-defined” ridges and curves.
Approximately 87% of the Amazon reviews of the Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Nonstick Bakeware Fluted Cake Pan are positive. The most common comment from buyers is that they are surprised by how heavy duty the pan is. Durability is one of the biggest pros.
One reviewer purchased this pan to make pineapple upside-down cake. He has made several now, and each has turned out terrific.
Pros: Affordable, durable construction, cooks cake evenly, lifetime warranty
Cons: Produces cakes with an unimpressive appearance
The best high-end Bundt pan
Why you’ll love it: The Nordic Ware Jubilee Bundt Pan is an excellent tool for creating breathtakingly beautiful cakes that also taste great.
It only makes sense that the company that invented Bundt cake pans would have the most attractive collection to choose from. Nordic Ware has developed dozens of different pans featuring intricate designs, including pine forest, Star of David, fleur-de-lis, and more. Check out the entire selection here.
The Nordic Ware Jubilee Bundt Pan is one of the best. It’s made of cast aluminum, which is ideal for even baking. The pockets in the resulting cake are great for catching glazes, and the diamond pattern has hidden hearts in its design. As with all of its Bundt pans, Nordic Ware makes this pan in the United States and backs it with a lifetime warranty.
Good Housekeeping recommends the Nordic Ware Jubilee Bundt Pan because it bakes cakes evenly and quickly, the resulting cake is easy to remove from the pan, and the texture is excellent. The reviewer tested the pan by baking a store-bought cake mix. The testers were impressed with the crisp, thin crust and the moist crumb. They didn’t like that it isn’t dishwasher safe, but it was easy enough to wash by hand thanks to the nonstick finish.
Baking Bites, Club 10 Reviews, and Epicurious also recommend this pan, and buyers seem to love it, too. There are currently more than 300 reviews of the Nordic Ware Jubilee Bundt Pan on Amazon, and all but 11 of them give it four or five stars.
The most helpful commenter, stilljojo, was apprehensive to try such an intricate pan at first but found that the process was effortless. She used an oil spray on the pan. Afterward, she ran a silicone spatula around the cake to loosen it from the pan. This worked out well.
Other buyers have had similar experiences. One home baker recommended using a clean brush to make sure the oil spray gets into all of the crevices.
Pros: Produces beautiful cakes that are evenly-browned and have a moist crumb, lifetime warranty
Cons: Expensive, not dishwasher safe
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